Background : The effect of vitamin D deficiency in critically ill children is still unclear and much debated. Current research indicates that this hormone had significantly broad pleiotropic effects on various organ systems in the body. The purpose of this study was to prove the existence of a negative correlation between levels of vitamin D with the severity of disease in critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
Material : This study used cross-sectional analytic study design and correlation test. This study was conducted in PICU Sanglah Hospital in RSUP Sanglah Denpasar, the period April to September 2016. Samples that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria had collected the blood sample to measure serum vitamin D levels and assessed the degree of severity of the disease when admission at PICU using Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) III score. Spearman correlation test was used to determine the strength of the correlation between the two variable because one of the data distribution was not normal.
Results : One hundred nine subjects examined vitamin D levels and assessed the degree of severity of the disease when admission at PICU with PRISM III score. The mean levels of vitamin D in this study was 19,66 ng/mL (SD 7.2). Sixty subjects (55%) with vitamin D deficiency, 39 subjects (35,8%) with vitamin D insufficiency and 10 subjects (9,2%) with optimal vitamin D levels. There was a significant moderate negative correlation between levels of vitamin D with PRISM III score (r = -0.49; p <0.001).
Conclusions : The conclusions of this study is there was a negative correlation between levels of vitamin D with the severity of disease in critically ill children in PICU. Future research needed to determine the association between vitamin D deficiency with the severity of disease by comparing not critically ill children as a control.

Keywords: critically ill children vitamin D deficiency PRISM III

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